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The easiest way is to find the moon and then, below it is the very bright Venus. Using Venus as a guide, north-east of it is red Mars, and south-east of it (But a little further away) is the unblinking Saturn. Mercury is close to the horizon, straight sown from Venus, but a little to the left.

Lovely to be able to locate all these planets so easily! Usually, Mercury is difficult to find. If you're not sure if it is a planet or star you're seeing, you'll see that the planets don't twinkle!

Happy viewing - just remember, you need to find it within the next hour or so, as Mercury is setting rapidly; and the other three will be close to the horizon not too long after that.

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.

The news conference will be held at the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 300 E St. SW, in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website at http://www.nasa.gov.

Media representatives may attend the conference or ask questions by phone or from participating NASA locations. To obtain dial-in information, journalists must send their name, affiliation and telephone number to Steve Cole at stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov or call 202-358-0918 by noon Dec. 2.

It proved to be a false alarm. NASA did not discover life in outer space, but has discovered a micro-organism in a lake in California, which lives on arsenic. These findings are proof that living organisms can survive on poisonous chemicals, and the possibility is there, that such organisms may exist in outer space.

Last edited by Rooies on Fri Dec 03, 2010 12:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Okay, firstly, I know nothing about the stars and planets except that they look much prettier from the KNP than from Pretoria

But I do have a question:

I'm on the road early morning from around 5:45 to 6:15 every weekday morning, driving more-or-less in a easterly direction through Pretoria the whole time. Last week and the week before I've noticed 3 "stars" in a L-shape, about 30 to 40 degrees above the horizon, in about a east-north-easterly or north-easterly direction (is this the way to express position when talking about stars?). The corner "star" was very bright and large in comparison with the others. The "star" on the end of the "long, upright leg" (the "top star") of the "L" was medium in size and brightness. The star on the end of the "foot" of the "L" was relatively small and not very bright. This last mentioned star disappeared as soon as the horizon started lighting up from the rising sun. I've noticed that over the course of the two mentioned weeks the "top star" moved further and further away from the other two stars so that where the two "legs" of the "L" was about equal length when I first noticed it, the "upright" leg became longer and longer until it was many times as long as the "foot" of the "L". I assume this "top star" as well as the "corner star" were planets and not stars as the "top star" changed position so quickly, and the "corner star" were (are) so bright. Any idea which planets they are?

Once I "paged" to the right dates (14 May) and time (6:00) (and got my directions rights - about halfway between the east and northeast from location -25, +28) it was obvious! And then paging through the following days showed the planet's alignment change exactly how I saw it happening "in real life"

The "top star" of the "L" turned out to be Jupiter, the "corner star" is Venus, and the last "star" (which I thought was a star, but is actually also a planet) is Mercury.

I see by tomorrow morning four planets should be more or less in a crooked line: Jupiter at the top, then Venus, Mars and Mercury at the bottom. Will be looking out for them

This is actually quite interesting! "Planet-watching" - something to do when it's too dark outside for birding (except with a spotlight of course). (Don't feel quite ready for the stars yet... )

Here is a great name-dropping technique for a first date - just drop in a casual:"Have you seen the latest perigee-syzygy arrangement of the Earth-Moon-Sun system?"Of course your date will be impressed, but don't forget to know what you're talking about because he/she will definitely want to know more. And who knows where that will lead, right?

These jargon-droppers seem to make things arcane for the less-knowledgeable people of the world - perhaps deliberately? - but this jaw-breaker is not too difficult to understand. A perigee is the closest approach of a heavenly body to another in its orbit; in this case, the Moon to her "mother-ship", our very own Earth. A syzygy (great Scrabble word for a vowelless arrangement of letters) is really only a straight-line alignment of three heavenly bodies, in this case the Earth-Moon-Sun. So, what this all translates to is:

We are all in for a treat on Sunday night: there is a coincidence between the Moon's closest approach to the Earth with its Full Moon appearance. And so, we will have what is commonly known as a SUPERMOON. That is, a Full Moon that will appear up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than one at its farthest point, or apogee. Is this significant? Well, if you are in a good viewing area, you will certainly notice the extra impressiveness of this Moon sighting, but if you try to photograph it, it may not be all that different. Try and catch it just as it is rising and don't be too shy to audibly hiss out a great sigh of awe. If you're on a first date, all the better.

So, turn your eyes heavenward, or at least horizonward, on Sunday evening around 18h00 (just after sunset) and report back here as soon as you can. The Supermoon will be visible until around 05h30.

Kite, I was watching the gibbous moon setting before dawn and the size is certainly larger than normal; it's almost as if it has an ancient pull on the spirit, which explains why medical personnel traditionally say that patients in asylums or psychiatric hospitals may show worsening behaviour around a full moon. What could possibly happen around a Supermoon?

ST, I believe it is going to happen. The sod will be fertilised, so to speak.